Frightening attempted break-in, trespass

I just wanted to send in a friendly neighborhood reminder to all of the PhinneyWood readers (and beyond) to lock your doors when you’re not at home. I live on a quiet street at 83rd and 10th Ave NW and yesterday, I came home early from work at about 2:30pm to find a random teenager passed out, face down in my living room! He had walked down our driveway and found the back door which had mistakenly been left unlocked when both my husband and I left for work in the morning. I called the police who responded really quickly and entered the house, guns drawn to drag this 16 year old, very drunk kid, out of my house — thankfully he threw up outside and not all over our new couch. He didn’t seem to have touched anything in the house at all, nothing seems to be missing. He just came in and passed out. There is no way to know if he was alone the whole time or if there were other kids with him who left him there, but the situation could have been so much worse on so many levels. And, could have been avoided had we remembered to lock our door.

And last weekend, an anonymous reader had this experience:

I wanted to make you aware of an attempted break-in tonight around 7:30 pm at my home at 2nd Ave NW and 87th. I’d like to remind my neighbors not to answer the door for strangers and to call 911 about ANYTHING suspicious. As my father-in-law, who was a cop in another state, told me, if your hair stands on end and something doesn’t feel right, listen to your instincts.

I was home alone with my baby tonight. Around 7 pm, a young black man came up my steps past the no soliciting sign and began aggressively, loudly pounding on my front door. Not knocking — pounding, for about three minutes straight. I did not know him, and he was not carrying a board or anything to indicate that he was selling anything, so I did not answer the door. It looked like no one was home (no car in the driveway, front porch light on, and I did not answer), and I was pretty sure he was casing the house. I called 911. Shortly thereafter, I heard pounding against the side of my house. (I realized later that this was someone trying to break into the basement window. The grass was all trampled there. Thankfully the window is nailed shut.) I called 911 back. Cops were here within minutes and continued to drive around the neighborhood all night.

At the same time that someone was trying to break into my basement window, a young man of similar description, but neater clothes (button-up shirt and sweater) was across the street asking my neighbor to buy magazine subscriptions for $50. He seemed a bit fishy to her, and looked in and around her house. They might be working together.

Just wanted to let my neighbors know to be safe, don’t open your door to strangers, and call 911 if you see anything suspicious.